The Cal State University and United Auto Workers Local 4123, a union that represents academic student employees, reached a tentative agreement Thursday that will end more than 2 years of stalled bargaining.
The agreement, which followed the release of a neutral fact-finder’s report, will not grant graduate, teaching and instructional student assistants tuition fee waivers.
Rich Anderson, president of Local 4123, told the Daily 49er in September that academic student employees “are the only employee group that must pay fees to be employed.” Anderson did not rule out a strike if the fact-finder’s report did not agree with the union’s request for fee waivers.
In 2007, University of California academic student employees secured a contract that granted “partial fee remission of 100 percent of annual education and registration fees.”
Eric Fallis, CSU media relations specialist, said that steep budget cuts to the CSU rendered the fee waivers impossible, citing Cal State Long Beach’s $48 million base budget reduction for the 2010-11 school year.
The neutral fact-finder’s report was sympathetic to these cuts.
“In the face of the reductions and ongoing fiscal uncertainty, and the fact that CSU fees are still the lowest among 16 comparative universities, I am reluctant to recommend a new monetary benefit which will significantly impact one of two key revenue sources for CSU,” the fact-finder said. “Like most public sector entities, the CSU is in the midst of a severe budget crisis.”
The agreement will also preserve the previous contract’s pay scale.
Local 4123 will, however, be able to request reopener bargaining with respect to fee waivers and pay increases in the last year of the three-year agreement.
According to Anderson, graduate, teaching and instructional student assistants receive an average monthly salary of $1,472.17, $797.39 and $317.39, respectively.
The agreement will be submitted to the CSU Board of Trustees for ratification next month.
Local 4123 represents approximately 5,400 student employees, securing their first contact in 2005.
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